Fourth Poeteka poetry and literature festival held

DURRES, Sep 22 – It was after May 30th that some Albanian poets, writers and intellectuals began to worry.
“What is going on with the poetry and literature festival? Will there be another Poeteka Festival? Did everybody have enough of it already?”
These, and other questions, were heard during the first days of June when there had been no news from the organizers of the festival.
It did not take long, however, for Arian Leka, director and founder of Poeteka, to provide answers.
“Yes there will be a fourth edition of Poeteka, but it will take place on September 22nd and there will be a lot of surprises,” Leka informed the curious.
This year’s event was conceived as a literature pilgrimage to some of the oldest and most historical sites in Albania, including Berat, Kruja, Elbasan and, of course, Durr쳬 the town hosting the event.
The fourth Poeteka Festival, also, introduced first-time events such as New Entry, dedicated to new poets’ works being made available at the festival.
A caf顡nd candid interviews were held as a way to create special ties between the author, as a poet and as a person, as well.
Authors’ readings are another new format of the Poeteka Festival where all participating poets are invited to read their own poems and writings.
There is a special part of this year’s festival, named Ad Honorem, and dedicated to the famous American poet Wallace Stevens, in which guests heard Stevens recorded voice reading his poems.
A special area in the Poeteka Festival was reserved for showing the film entitled DocuMental. This was considered to be the best way to spread poetry by using modern technological tools.
Five Europeans at the Court of King Monun was probably the most important novelty during the fourth session of the poetry festival. It was planned as a special afternoon of Dutch poetry, the least known European poetry in Albania. The session was created with great care and desire by the organizers of Poeteka as a major contribution for a greater understanding toward that part of the world we aspire to become part of.
Poeteka began as a cultural initiative in Durres in 2004 under the symbol of a Liburn栨Illyrian boat) decorated with sails displaying written poems and mosaics, as a symbol of Albania’s potential to export cultural values. This valuable tradition has paved the way towards the first International Poetry Festival – (POETEKA- A home for Poetry, April, 2005) based not only upon the successful impact and support it had in cultural circles of the region and beyond, but also as a call for a larger approach into the cultural and artistic life and the values it transmits, values which bring a colorful variety within human dimensions. Until now, three Poeteka Festival have been successfully held with more than 200 distinguished poets and writers from more than 20 European and other countries appearing at the festival.